Thursday, October 24, 2013

Glory

I love the word “glory”. I appreciate the sound it
makes as it rolls across my tongue and it brings to mind images of dancing light
beams and Jesus transfigured, face shining like the sun. I think of what
happened when Moses went up the mountain and spent time in God’s presence. His
face glowed with the reflected glory of the Lord.

Despite the lovely images, I have trouble wrapping
my mind around the concept of glory. Bible dictionaries define it as abundance, treasure, honour, splendour,
brightness and majesty. It is something intrinsic to God’s character and
being – a quality so wondrous and powerful that it altered Moses’ appearance.

The Bible makes it clear that human beings are to
give glory to God. “Ascribe to the Lord
the glory due His name.” (Ps. 29:2) Does this mean we tell Him how wonderful He
is, over and over again? The Westminster Catechism implies that there is more
to it than that: “Man’s chief end is to
glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

When I think about glorifying God, I imagine
retreating into the shadows so God can be the one that shines. How can that be
enjoyable? I don’t know about you, but there’s something in me – pride, perhaps
– that would rather keep a little glory for myself. But God says: “I am the Lord, that is my name! I will not
give my glory to anyone else …” (Isaiah 42:8)

It’s clear that pride must be put aside in any
quest to recognize God’s greatness and worship him appropriately, but getting
rid of it isn’t easy. In fact, it feels a bit like dying. I’ve been discovering,
though, that when I let go of my rights and desires, give up my futile attempts
to gain the world’s esteem and cease trying to claw my way up the ladder to
heaven, something surprising occurs.

As the inner noise quietens down, I feel a little scared
and alone.But if I cling to God and refuse to give into the
temptation to fill that emptiness with the usual second-rate stuff, my spirit
begins to awaken to God’s presence. It dawns on me that I’m not some spiritual
orphan, scrabbling in the dust for a crumb of food, but the beloved child of a
Father who can meet all my needs. A finger of joy dances into my heart and I
get up and walk with a lighter step, praising and thanking my Maker. And in my
spirit, I sense that He is pleased.

This God of ours, who created galaxies and pulsates
with energy and light, cares deeply for me. And you. Glorious indeed.

“To
please God … to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness … to be loved by
God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a
father in a son – it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our
thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.” ~ C.S. Lewis

Sheila, it's wonderful that you read fellow Inscribers' blogs. Well, now it seems I must post on my blog after your encouragement :-) There is a post in the works, so we'll see what happens! I'll have to check out your blog too.

Pages

Share It

Follow by Email

Subscribe To

About Me

At last...I'm ready to start a blog and join the millions worldwide who got on this bandwagon long before me.
I like to write and I enjoy sharing thoughts and inspirations about life and all things related to it. I happen to believe that God is closely involved with people, so I especially enjoy probing into what He might be saying and doing amongst us.
I enjoy on-line interactions and the chance to get to know a bit about people who may be living nearby or far away. I've learned and grown a lot through these kinds of exchanges and see no reason why that shouldn't continue here, on this blog. As such, I welcome your comments about anything I write on Rolling Waves.

COMMENTS SECTION

I hope that those of you who happen upon my blog will enjoy your time here. My fondest wish is that this might be a place where seekers of God find community and freedom to share their own thoughts and inspirations, to ask and answer questions and to listen to God together. Feel free to comment on any of my posts. I'd love to hear your thoughts!